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Volunteering offers a multitude of benefits. And if you end up retiring sooner than you plan to, it can offer a bridge to what you may decide to do next. Yet, it’s easy to take on more than you’re ready for too soon. You’ll want to learn to set boundaries up front to protect your time and flexibility. Lisa Lewis shares her experiences and lessons learned about volunteering with boundaries.
Lisa Lewis joins us from Tampa, Florida.
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Bio
Dr. Lisa T. Lewis is the Belief System (B.S.) Boss® and Founder of the Belief System (B.S.) Boss® Institute. Through her transformative Belief System training, she empowers individuals to successfully reengineer their belief systems to transform life’s obstacles into possibilities. As an ordained clergy member, award-winning author, TEDx speaker, senior manager, and certified John Maxwell Team Coach, Teacher, Speaker, and Trainer, she brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to her practice, inspiring personal and professional growth in her clients.
She formerly served as the Chief Budget and Financial Management Officer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO) for both the Aircraft Operations Center (AOC) in Lakeland, Florida and the Commissioned Personnel Center (CPC) in Silver Spring, Maryland. The AOC is best known for the ‘Hurricane Hunters,’ a group of aircraft used for hurricane reconnaissance. They fly through hurricanes to help forecasters and scientists gather operational and research data. The crews also conduct other research projects, including ocean wind studies, winter storm research, thunderstorm research, coastal erosion, and air chemistry flights.
Her thirty-six-year federal career began as a stay-in-school student, Clerk-Typist with General Services Administration. Although she studied Business Administration at Barton College, she found her federal niche when she was introduced to federal budgeting and finance in 1991. Since then, she has become the “Olivia Pope” of federal budgeting and finance. She has enjoyed working at a few cabinet-level agencies: the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services with the U.S. Surgeon General and National Institutes of Health, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Homeland Security.
Aside from her recent retirement from Federal service, a few little-known facts about Lisa are that she holds several professional certifications, has authored/published several books, has completed her first TEDx Talk, has an honorary Doctor of Divinity, and is an ordained Elder in the Christian faith.
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For More on Lisa Lewis
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Podcast Conversations You May Like
Grace in Motion – Susan Hartzler
Your Identity Beyond Your Job Title – Laverne McKinnon
The Mutual Benefits of Intergenerational Volunteering – Atalaya Sergi
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About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast
There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time.
About Retirement Wisdom
I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident.
Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms.
About Your Podcast Host
Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.
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Wise Quotes
On The Benefits of Volunteering
“The joys of volunteering. for me have been, it helps me not think about myself. And it helps me to be a part of the solution of whatever area I’m involved in. I encourage people who talk about wanting to volunteer, but they’re not exactly sure how they want to do it, to think about what comes up in their mind as a problem area. And they can be part of the solution. Any problem area that you can think about, for the most part, there is an area in which you can volunteer to help be part of the solution to solve that problem.”
On Volunteering with Boundaries
Because to go from someone who works a 40 hour work week, and I work far more hours in that every week, but to go from a stressful intense work week to zero. is quite a transition. So I definitely understand the emphasis on ensuring you have something else to do when you retire. Volunteering went into turbo speed. So the volunteering I was doing, I had to manage expectations that I had a little more time on my and hands, but I was able to engage a little bit differently, showing up in person more often than what I was able to when I was working full time. But I was being clear, I’m not trading in 40 hours of a work week for 40 hours of volunteering. I’m not doing that. So that is, I think the challenge and the pitfalls are one and the same is managing expectations in your time. Because if you want to do something else with the next chapter of your life, and it’s not volunteering 100% of the time, that is the challenge, is making sure that folks know, I’m not the person to call at the 11th hour.”
On Mentoring
“I am excited and thrilled that a number of people that I have been able to mentor and manage at different points that were interested in advancing their career, all of them now, 36 years later, are in leadership roles. They’re hiring individuals. They’re running their own offices and doing amazing work. So that’s exciting.”
On Do’s and Don’ts
Do volunteer first and foremost. Go to the internet and use AI to type in things that you enjoy doing and how you can volunteer in those areas. And it will bring back a barrage of places that you may not even thought of where you can volunteer. And call the organizations because trust me, everyone is looking for volunteers. And talk with whoever is responsible for bringing in new volunteers and see whether or not there’s an alignment with what you believe, how you want to serve. And if that’s the case, go for it.
Don’t go all in. I know that’s crazy. It may sound a little backward but don’t go all in in the beginning because when you’re volunteering, this has to be mutually beneficial. Don’t over commit initially, try it on for size. And if it’s working well and it’s a good fit, then go all in. Take baby steps and don’t over commit. That’s the worst thing you could do is to over commit and then not be able to see the assignment through a project through to completion.”
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